Whilst Time Turns
by Aixyutin
Summary: It was not ironic that Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyuuga Hinata alone had survive. What was ironic was that Naruto seemed intent on correcting the wrongs even if it meant throwing them back into the past for the bitter task of saving the world. AU
1. Awakening from Nightmares

**WHILST TIME TURNS**

It was not ironic that Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyuuga Hinata had survived the massacre. What was ironic was that Naruto seemed intent on correcting the wrongs, even if it meant sacrificing himself to throw the three back into the past, a mental ordeal none of them are sure they can survive. AU Time Travel.

T Angst/Adventure/Drama

* * *

**Author's Notes**: This fic was originally drafted back in 2007-8 which is pretty much pre-Shippuden. Sasuke still seemed like a decent character and Madara was still nothing more than a name. In spite of recent information, this AU was drafted with all of the above in mind.

* * *

**Prologue**

The rain came down heavily on the burning crust of a city.

Patches of pink and red trickled on the wet pavement, shading the gray a dull brown. Smoke coughed and wheezed indignantly at the rain. Murky puddles collected beneath the bodies, and the hiss of water sizzling against charred flesh punctuated the dull murmur of rain. Shells of humans limped, crawled, slumped through the streets. The rain drowned the sound of sobbing, but in the distance a lone wail echoed through the empty buildings. As the living scraped their way through the rubble and the dead, the Hokage tower smoldered. Under the twisted and gnarled shadow of the tower, three shinobi crouched over a bloody man.

Hyuuga Hinata rested the man's head in her lap. Her hands hung helplessly at her sides and her hair stuck to her grimy neck and obscured her peripheral vision, but she couldn't care less. Unable to hold back tears, she turned away so the salty water wouldn't hit the raw open wounds. Uchiha Sasuke remained crouched on the man's right. His shirt stuck to his skin with soppy rainwater and even soppier blood. Despite the endorphins, he inwardly seethed as the sharp rain fell upon his raw back. His ribs were broken too, but he remained solemn and silent. Nara Shikamaru resisted the urge to close his eyes in defeat. He slouched on the fallen man's left, his ponytail almost too heavy. Only the prone Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage of what was left of Konohagakure, had the semblance of a smile on his face. Despite the pulsing red chakra of a frantic Kyuubi, there was no denying that Naruto was dying. It was amazing he had even lasted this long.

"Heh, don't cry Hinata-chan," he murmured. If anything, her sobs increased. She raised her hands to hide her face. Naruto always seemed to have a 'Hinata-chan' for her, even when he was dying. Sasuke's shoulders tightened in agitation and even the passive Shikamaru shifted.

"Shut up dobe," Sasuke said heavily but without any real ire.

"Heh, heh, heh," Naruto panted and gasped, before giving a weak cough that caused the slit on his neck to spurt out more blood. Shikamaru flicked his eyes toward the tiny rivers of blood slithering out of his friend's gaping body and onto the cold, uncaring pavement.

"Don't worry," Naruto continued to weakly protest. He shook his head at Sasuke's furrowed eyebrows. "Don't get angry teme."

It was the nickname more than anything that made Sasuke rein in his rage. If Naruto wanted to act Naruto even on his death bed, there was nothing Sasuke could do about it.

There was a brief moment before Naruto spoke again.

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" the Hokage murmured.

No one answered.

He was silent for a while. Minutes, precious minutes ticked by in aching silence. Hinata's sobs finally ended but her hands still hid her face. Naruto was going to have a slow death and they all knew it. Sasuke dreaded the possibility that Naruto would ask for a mercy killing. In the ashes of Konoha, there was no place to hide and the truth was a harsh rough one. Sasuke had no doubt that he would be able to pull the blade. Whether he could live with himself afterwards was another question. It made one part of him wondered if Naruto knew so. Knowing Naruto as he did now, years after their preteen insanity, Sasuke wouldn't be surprised.

Shikamaru squinted at the sky, feeling cold rain hit his chilled face. Grey clouds. It was all rather depressing.

It was the sudden surge of hot, unstable chakra that threw them out of their sorrowful stupor. The chakra burned angry, the kind uncontrolled, untameable chakra that seemed to come straight out of the seventh level of hell.

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed before she was sent flying back. She tumbled and almost flipped, too stunned to even cry. Her fragile neck remained in a vulnerable position even as her form sailed toward the wall. Hinata's eyes widened, and her fingers flickered with chakra, but with a broken hip and a sprained spine that she had been secretly nursing, she was simply too tired to do anything except think, '_Naruto…!' _

In a way, death would be a blessing.

Shikamaru and Sasuke had been crouching in a flexible position, so they had been able to flee at the sudden ripple of chakra. Even as Shikamaru's feet lightly landed a good distance away, his eyes widened fearfully as he saw Hinata go flying toward a cement wall. He crouched again to move forward but was thrown off when a black blur pushed past him.

Ignoring the tremor of pain that racked his body as he abused his own broken ribs, Sasuke glided onto the wall and held himself parallel to the ground just seconds before Hinata's prone body flew toward him. Despite his quick and violent movements, his hands were gentle as he wrapped one arm around her bruised back and another around her knees. Careful to support her neck with one callused palm, he landed on the ground with a heavy thud. The sudden force knocked a pained grunt out of his body, but he was careful to roll the force onto his knees and away from Hinata's body.

Sasuke's shoulders slumped. With that last stunt he had used up all his chakra and what was left of his pain tolerance. Hinata's eyes were blank as she looked upwards into Sasuke's dark, black gaze. Up close they could see every little cut, burn, and fear on each others' faces. Perhaps in their younger years both of them would have flinched away but now Sasuke only sighed as Hinata simply let her eyes flutter close in shameless, guiltless thanks.

"What are you doing dobe?" Sasuke hissed, biting back pain. Holding another person was putting additional strain on his injured back. Not really expecting a reply, he shifted Hinata into a more comfortable position and then almost dropped her in shock when he glanced upwards again.

Shikamaru's own eyes narrowed into slits as somehow, _somehow_ Naruto unsteadily stood. Blood poured ever more vigorously out of his wounds, and he looked as if he were emerging victoriously from a massacre of the gods themselves.

"I…Kyuubi… will… do... something…" the man gasped out. His eyes were slightly crazed and feverish and his hands were shaking. His fingers cracked, broken, and became claws. Hinata silently screamed as more demonic chakra burst from his body. It took all her courage to keep herself from shaking underneath the malevolent spiritual weight. Sasuke tightened his hold on her to keep her from bolting, broken hip and all.

Naruto was muttering but no one could catch his stuttering words. Time was insignificant as the chakra continued to rise, and rise, and rise. The rain was howling and the rubble cast long shadows. Dimly, the three shinobi knew they were supposed to do something as they felt more than heard the screams from watching villagers but they were simply too lethargic, too depressed. It seemed as the last bit of humam within them had finally caught up.

Hell hath no fury like a demon displeased.

It was only before the very final, very last pulse of chakra that Naruto seemed to regain momentary control.

"Sasuke… tell Sakura that I love-" The rest of the sentence was lost as blood erupted from his mouth like a fountain.

_Sakura? Never found except for her head…_

His friend could only nod mutely. Hinata looked calm but Sasuke could feel a distinct _off-ness_ course through her. It was for her sake, not his, that he looked away.

Naruto continued to talk but even his delirious mind realized he was only making guttural noises through the blood. Blood spewed out of his mouth and splashed onto the pavement. Shikamaru's eyes had gone dead and didn't even flicker.

The villagers were screaming.

Using his last effort, Naruto made one last attempt.

"The rest is… up to you guys…" Naruto burbled through the life-giving liquid. He was nearing the end. Just one last...

And then suddenly there was _something _tearing at their every bit of being. Their souls, their physical entities, their skin felt like they were being ripped in all different directions. Shikamaru crouched into a compact position as Sasuke instinctively curled over Hinata, who grabbed his arm in fear.

Suddenly there was no more Konoha, only a huge black vortex that loomed hungry. Shikamaru froze in horror, his eyes wide and deer-like with fright. Hinata's mouth twisted open as a terrified shriek ripped through her raw throat. She buried her head into Sasuke's dirty shirt as her fingers clutched at him for purchase. Sasuke could do little more than pull her toward him, an old primitive instinct in him finding comfort in having another living human close.

Faintly, distantly right before the darkness both sweet and unforgiving swept through them, they thought they heard his voice one last time.

_I'm sorry._

Then true, deep, dank blackness.

_Forgive me._

* * *

**Whilst Time Turns**

**Chapter 1: An Awakening from Nightmares**

* * *

Nara Shikamaru had nightmares.

His nightmares were never about shadows. Shadows were warm and friendly, and they reminded him of cornflower hair and periwinkle eyes. His nightmares were always about glazy whiteness that had burned away his family, friends, and home. It was the same kind of glazy whiteness that had turned her periwinkle blue eyes into glass marbles.

_Even in death she looked sickeningly beautiful._

He jolted awake. Scrambled in blankets that seemed both familiar and foreign. Felt cold sweat and bumps flutter up his arms. His hands flared with chakra.

His eyes were blurry and he had a monstrous headache. It took Shikamaru moments to refocus, moments that he wasn't sure he had. Perhaps he was in the enemy camp, perhaps he was…

Even after clarity, it took Shikamaru a breathless moment to realize where he was.

_The distinct mess. The wooden desk with a crack in the grain._

_The three legged stool._

Shocked, he looked down at his familiar yet foreign blankets. It was the patchwork quilt that his mother had made. He could recognize it anywhere. The tiny stitches, the faded blue. Even back then, she had always seemed to instinctively know his favorite color.

It was the same blanket as the one that had been lost when a particularly nasty missing-nin blew up his house.

This wasn't right.

Fighting down vomit and bile, Shikamaru's eyes closed. Hysteria clawed at him but he forced it down. Just when he thought he was in control however, he felt _them_. Down the hallway, quietly at rest.

_Mom. Dad._

Shikamaru was a rational, hardened, tough shinobi. But the seconds, hours, days, months, years of The Terror was seeping into his mind like a slow thick poison. It was the niggling monster he had forced away with what little hope he had. Even when hope had vanished, the whispers and tatters of good memories had kept him sane. However when even those died, there wasn't much to keep away the Insane and the Crazed.

Shikamaru burrowed his head into his arms and screamed.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke had nightmares.

His nightmares were always about red. Different shades of red, like the glowing red of a Chidori to the muted red of dried old blood, the kind of red he'd seen on the walls of Orochimaru's torture chamber. He also dreamed of the kind of red that mixed fresh blood with dried old maroon patches, that shade of deep garnet that looked eerily like the Mangekyou.

Itachi.

_Madara._

It wasn't unusual for Sasuke to fall asleep outside out of sheer exhaustion. Sasuke bit back a curse as he slowly began to feel the pounding pain in the back of his head, the pulsing ache of his muscles, and the grit of dirt on his sweat stained body. Resisting the lazy urge to just lie there, he flexed his legs to flip upwards in a crouching position. For a moment, he was up where he was supposed to be….and then his nose was suddenly squished against the ground.

_Damn!_

Momentarily too exhausted to realize he had just _overshot_, he attempted again. The feeling of his nose smashing against the ground a second time brought clarity slamming into Sasuke's brain harder than Kakashi's fist.

_Kakashi. Squishy grass. A dank smell of blood and sweat and a rusty sword. If he just looked at the top half, he could imagine that Kakashi was only sleeping…_

Breaking that line of thought abruptly, Sasuke focused on the more immediate problem. One failure, he could credit to exhaustion. Two failures?

Gingerly, Sasuke flexed his legs and flipped upwards again. But somehow, somehow, his legs seemed shorter than before, his torso lighter, his reflexes just that much slower. It was only with full concentration he was able to use his arms to support his frame against the merciless ground. As his mind went dizzy with frustration and exhaustion, he focused on his hands.

Sasuke's hands were definitely a lot smaller than he remembered them. They were missing crucial scars, calluses and old tattoos.

_Something is terribly off. _He rolled to his feet, like a civilian, not trusting his suddenly foreign body. As he stared at the trees, he distinctively felt shorter than he was before. Sasuke grabbed at his neck and waited to feel the old pulse of Orochimaru's weakened but not dead chakra.

Nothing.

Sasuke snarled. His chakra flared and twisted. He narrowed his eyes as he activated his Sharingan. Or attempted to anyway.

Terror began to chew at his senses as his vision refused to turn into the black and red world that was both Sasuke's blessing and curse. Even as he strained his eyes, the Sharingan refused to manifest.

_Did Madara take his Sharingan?_

But no, that didn't make sense. He would be blind then. Perhaps he was sealed?

_No, Hinata wouldn't be that cruel._

For a fleeting moment Sasuke clung to his cool and resolve. He had spent too much time clawing through life by his fingernails to lose his cool at a time like this. After all, he was Uchiha Sasuke—the last Uchiha, the last and the best survivor. But the seconds, minutes, hours, years of the Terror weighed on him like thickened gravity and even the best of them had a pain threshold.

_Must have been caught by the enemy after…_

After what?

Sasuke felt like bringing the world to its knees.

So instead, he screamed.

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata had nightmares.

Her nightmares were always black. Darkness. Alone. She never saw anyone in her dreams. She only heard voices. Pounding, accusing, condemning, bitter voices. Voices that said she wasn't good enough. That she was weak. Pathetic. Unacceptable. _Unsuitable. _That she didn't deserve to be Clan Head. That it was her fault the Clan died—that everyone died, all except her.

When Hinata woke she scrambled for kunai that weren't there and those missing weapons sent her into more panic. She keeled over and put a hand to her chest, expecting to feel the pulses of pain she always felt when she was particularly stressed. Neji's blow, even after all these years, had left permanent marks.

Yet, strangely enough, she felt nothing.

Disturbed, and in a reaction more violent than really called for, she ripped off her jacket. She stared down at her chest only to find none.

_What?_ Hinata blinked at her undershirt. It was flat. It was also loose enough for her to peek down and see the lack of a scar. Hinata pulled the undershirt away from her body just to make sure. Yes, where the scar was supposed to be was healthy white skin. In awe, she raised a hand to touch the healthy whiteness, but then froze at the sight of said hand.

Hands were important. Hands were what held your weapons and what kept you alive. They had reflexes and physical conditioning of self-defense that sometimes saved you even when you were most unaware. As Hyuuga Hinata, her hands were doubly important. Her livelihood as both a killer and a ruler laid in her hands.

Her hands had always been small but now they were tiny. Small. Lacking a memorable cut that ran across her palm, caused by a kuai she had tried to stop from piercing Hanabi.

_Little Hanabi had looked so small when she lay facedown in a puddle of scarlet red. Her hair was sticky-looking. Hanabi's hair was usually long, silky, smooth, and alive._

Pause. Stop all thought process.

Where was she?

Hinata blinked again and turned her head to look around. She was outside. The grass felt scratchy. Up ahead she could see an old battered training post. The wind smelled a bit smoky but it was not the smoke of burning buildings. Even further in the distance, Hinata could see the distinct outlines of the Hyuuga compound. She must have felt asleep training.

Hinata shakily stood up and was shocked to see the training log was taller than her. She had never been tall but she'd been tall enough. Hinata reached out to touch the log. It felt firm and real underneath her hands.

She was angry. Bitter. Confused. She felt like a cornered cat with unfamiliar hands tearing at her.

Barely thinking, Hinata drew her hand back and smashed the training post to bits.

A long time ago Hinata had harbored dreams. She had never been an easy killer, so she had aspired to be a healer, a healer that could mend even the most broken men. But the Terror had shown her just how powerlessa healer was.

A healer could never engage the enemy. A healer could never protect or even defend. A healer could only hope for the best and then try to fix what she could. More often than not, injuries were fatal. Even healers like Tsunade could only do so much. Time clocked at the hospital had taught Hinata that prevention was still the best medicine. If only she had been strong enough to kill the various, nameless enemies, then there wouldn't even be a need for a hospital. But by the time she'd gained the strength, the urge to protect had died with all the people worth protecting.

The splinters flew by her and she ignored a particularly sharp one that cut her chin. Her hand was coursing with thick chakra and she couldn't help but relish its familiar pulse.

_Burn, bitch._

However, there was something off. Something about her body. Something about her legs and her arms. The force behind her hands was too strong and she felt herself teetering forward. Eyes widening slightly, Hinata twisted her ankle forcefully to stop her movement. It hurt but it was better than careening into the unknown.

She leaned forward and rested her palms on her knees. Her ankle hurt but it wasn't anything she hadn't felt before. What was more disorienting was the sudden drain in chakra. It was worse than blood loss.

Yes, Hinata had never been strong. But she'd never been this weak either.

Hinata raised her head to the skies. The stars seemed to be mocking her. She activated her Byagukan with a low growl of frustration.

That was when she saw him.

She hadn't even been looking for him. Her Byagukan had seemed to instinctively seize upon his familiar face, sharpening and picking at the defining details of one Hyuuga Hiashi. Hinata felt a ragged whine escape her lips.

_Father._

She limped backwards in shock and her hands flinched, but her Byagukan remain activated. The chakra signature remained tragically clear, as tragically clear as her father's sleeping face. It was as if her father was really alive.

_I'm hallucinating, I'm hallucinating, I'm hallucinating…_

Not just alive, he looked _young_. Nothing like how he had looked before—

_Before she had been taken into an observation center, asked to identify a body, then she was screaming screaming at some broken thing that couldn't be a body, couldn't be human, and most definitely couldn't be Father…_

Crack, crack crack. Was that the sound of sanity being shattered?

Hinata's Byagukan roved and flew through the Hyuuga Compound with an assuredness that had come from being born, growing up, and ruling the Hyuuga. Hanabi. Neji. Even her Great Aunt. Even the old maid who had been the first to die, dying with the name Hyuuga on her lips.

Hinata struggled for control. However the seconds, minutes, days, months, years of the Terror had taken their toll. She could feel her vision tunneling in and she was only subconsciously aware of her Byagukan receding.

Hinata felt like making everyone in the world feel the same pain and hopelessness she felt. It wasn't _fair_.

She felt like screaming.

So instead, she bolted.

* * *

Fate hates the unprepared.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Oh yeah, you all want to kill me don't you? Despite all my big talk about throwing this aside, here I am reopening a Pandora's box. Blame it on my overactive muse who loves yoghurt and mustard.

Revamped and reposted. Originally wanted to post this underneath the character distinctions of "Shikamaru" and "Sasuke" but since this is definitely not a romance fic between the two (how disturbing), I decided to leave it underneath the more heterosexual labeling of Hinata and Sasuke.

**Review**. The golden cycle makes my muse happy. A happy muse equals a happy author equals a happy chapter equals happy readers equals happy reviews... and so on so forth.


	2. A Variance in Insanity

**Author's Notes: **I needed time to straighten out RL and its many priorities. 'Nuff said. Pretend my year-long hiatus didn't happen and let's move on.

Someone once postulated that Naruto actually occurred not in Japan, but somewhere more like China. I was reviewing the map and couldn't help but draw the same conclusion. This new realization has caused me to consider several important changes—nothing major, but if you read it with the abovementioned knowledge, it'll make more sense to you.

**Dedication**: To those who waited patiently.

**Whilst Time Turns**

**Chapter Two: A Variance in Insanity**

* * *

Sasuke slumped onto the ground with a weak grunt. It took him a few moments him to realize that his screams had gone largely unheard. It was a disquieting realization. Usually he would hear sounds of Naruto or even Karin scampering close by now.

Oh wait. They were dead.

_Where am I? _

He could see training logs. He could hear the sound of trees and wind. The air smelled of city, which was odd, since Sasuke usually made a point of avoiding society. Like he had repeatedly told Orochimaru, there was only one person he really wanted to kill and only one city he wanted to destroy.

_Although in the end, what had it mattered?_

Sasuke crawled upright again. Abandoning the training ground without a backward glance, he blindly made his way north, following his gut instincts as he mentally told himself to stay closer to camp from now on. But as he drew toward the nearest concrete building, he knew.

Even without the faded but proud Uchiha emblem, Sasuke would have known.

_Konohagakure._

Sasuke shook violently. But screaming had drained him and he could only accept his strange, alien surroundings.

_Konohagakure._

With a shudder he took one step forward. And then another. And then another. Bit by bit, the Uchiha compound came into focus. It was suspiciously clean. Surely Hinata couldn't have-

No. She would have left the moment he did.

It made Sasuke wonder if they'd given the buildings away in his absence. But he could see no sign of a foreign inhabitant. It was as if the Uchiha Compound had been frozen in time since his defection-his second defection.

Perhaps it had. It wouldn't be the strangest thing he'd seen lately.

His body seemed surprisingly healthy, even if it did feel foreign. Although he could feel bruises, his bones all seemed to be intact.

_At least his back felt a hell lot better than it had did underneath that damn rain._

Sasuke stopped to lean against a wall. He waslightheaded. His head still throbbed with a dull headache and his vision blurred in and out of focus.

Okay, not so healthy after all.

"Damn," he hissed. Forcing his eyes to focus on the floor in front of him, Sasuke continued walking. He found himself heading toward his part of the compound—a home he had abandoned twice, once a long time ago, and a second time quite recently.

_Konohagakure._

The door swung open quietly as if it had been oiled just yesterday. There were shoes, shoes that fit his suddenly small feet, lined up along the wall. The hallways were bare and clean.

It really was as if he had never left at all.

Sasuke felt his headache thicken. Shaking his head, he groped toward the bathroom blindly. He flicked open the switch and then naturally glanced at himself in the mirror—only to curse loudly and jump backwards in barely restrained shock. His dark eyes widened and his still baby-fat-laden-cheeks went slack.

He touched the icy mirror. It was real. It felt real.

Twenty-year-old Sasuke stared with horrified eyes at his much-too-young face.

He did the first thing he could think of. But even after he smashed the mirror to bits, he caught a glimpse of his smooth, unscarred cheek in the glass shards.

Ignoring his bloody hands, Sasuke whipped around to run out of the house. But from the light of the bathroom he caught a glimpse of the kitchen calendar.

The year taunted him.

Sasuke's memories welled up and suddenly he could feel all the old feelings of Konoha washing over his crazed mind. He had always done his best to suppress them, never wanted to think about them, but at the heart of his old home his memories broke free like a river surging through a broken dam.

If the calendar was right, he would be twelve.

_Impossible_.

It was impossible. Utterly impossible.

_But it all felt so real_.

The headache swelled and then swamped him. Sasuke's mind could only take so much. As he slumped onto the floor in an exhausted faint, he thought that traitorous word one last time.

_Konohagakure._

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata ran until her lungs burned.

In this alien body, it didn't take a very long time.

"Damn it," she murmured underneath her ragged breath. Her too-short legs and sprained ankle made her stumble more than once in her run and she now sported quite a few colorful bruises.

Although the run hadn't been as long as she liked, it had cleared her head. But more importantly, the run had allowed her to coast through Konohagakure. In the dead of the night, few bothered to notice or interfere with a small, shadow-hugging girl.

Although she'd cursed her Byagukan more than a few times for all the strain and stress it brought her, it certainly had its uses. With eyes that could cross hundreds of meters and see through walls, Hinata had managed to see her friends' sleeping faces. It had been exhausting and emotional, but worth it.

Hinata ruefully rubbed her cheeks. She could still feel the saltiness of her tears.

Despite the impossibility of the situation, the cold hard facts remained that she was in somewhere in the past. Konohagakure hadn't looked so beautiful and so strong in years. While she didn't know the exact date, she could guess it was somewhere around her Academy-Genin years judging from the how small everyone else had looked. Naruto had looked particularly tiny.

Hinata smiled softly. Even if it _was_ a genjutsu, a genjutsu so refined that even her Byagukan could not pierce it, everything felt so real that Hinata was willing to hope.

She needed this hope. It was the only thing keeping her going.

_Konohagakure._

Hinata resisted the urge to go sneak a glance at Naruto again. It would be excessive. It would be inappropriate as Hyuuga Head.

_Because no matter what reality she was in, she was still the Clan Head of the Hyuuga._

It would be inappropriate as Hyuuga Hinata.

_Because he was married-even if he wasn't married yet._

Twenty-year-old Hinata, sole survivor of the Hyuuga massacree, felt no tears and only an insignificant bitterness in her tongue. There were more important things to address right now.

_Beautiful Konohagakure._

Although she would have given anything to just run until blackness and nothingness consumed her, she stopped.

She turned around. It was time to go back home.

* * *

He woke up to the sizzling smell of just-steamed meat buns.

It'd been a long time since he'd had real food. Mind you, he didn't mean the shitty ration bars you gobbled down as you ran, jump, flew from one branch to another, trying to save that last civilian, kill that last enemy, or drag home that last body. Real food.

It'd also been a long time since he'd slept so soundly—in a real bed too.

The mattress was almost too soft, but Nara Shikamaru forced himself to roll out of bed. Idly wondering whose bed he had stolen—there were never enough to go around—he dropped onto the floor and instinctively began to stretch the kinks out of his body. As his eyes sharpened on the hardwood floor, he suddenly realized how oddly clean it was of blood. Although his mind lurched, he robotically rolled onto his stomach and began his daily push ups without missing a beat.

He'd forgotten that things weren't _quite _right.

"Fuck," Shikamaru hissed at the floor.

Last night had been sensational to say the least. Confronted with the ghosts of his father and mother—he must have been hallucinating—he'd thrown what must have been the most epic tantrum in his life. For a man who found most things beyond cloud-watching to be 'too troublesome', it was amazing he'd managed to fall back asleep at all.

Still, regardless of hallucinations or not, it still didn't explain the existence of his old room. In the stark daylight everything seemed to be lot less nightmarish, but also a hell lot more confusing and awkward.

Shikamaru wanted to dismiss the possibility of a genjutsu because everything just seemed_ too_ vivid, _too _realistic—but genjutsu was the only logical explanation for his predicament.

No one ever _really _went back in time.

"Shika, time for breakfast!"

Someone, be it god or human, had a serious vendetta against him. That same someone was going to seriously _pay_ for dragging his parents into this.

"This has definitely got to be a new all-time low," Shikamaru muttered as the painfully familiar chakra signatures moved about in the kitchen.

"Shika!"

But even if this was all part of some sick psychotic's imagination, something in Shikamaru couldn't bear to ignore his mother. Without even a hint of his old characteristic groan and mocking disinterest, Shikamaru rolled onto his feet and dressed quickly. He stopped only to glare briefly at baby-fat preteen in the finger-smudged mirror on the wall. If messing with dead parents was sadistic, putting him back into his twelve-year-old self was just plain annoying.

Damn it, where was that hairband of his?

"Shika! Get your butt down here!"

Shikamaru grumbled darkly and practically flew down the stairs. He'd managed to get his ponytail tied by the time his 'mother' appeared at the kitchen doorway.

"Lazy as usual aren't you?" she said fondly. Even if she had a few wrinkles and scars on her hands, Nara Yoshino was a vision in her yellow apron and her fond smile. It made Shikamaru slam into the wall.

"Shika!" the person that looked like his mother rushed forward.

Shikamaru shielded away. He can't—couldn't let that thing touch him.

His mother was _dead_. Cremated and her ashes left to drift over Konohagakure.

Still, the look of dismay that flashed over her face at his refusal _hurt_; it was all too real and too similar to memory. Shikamaru couldn't find it in himself to yell at her.

"Shika?" that thing asked carefully.

"I'm going to have breakfast," he said gruffly, dismissing the growing bruise on his shoulder. Even through the fear and growing panic, his stomach screamed for food. He pushed past hastily.

Fuck was that his _dad_ in the kitchen?

* * *

"Shika, it's time to go," she said.

"Yes." The succinct and brief answer surprised Nara Yoshino, almost as much as it had surprised her to see her son awake, dressed, and sitting at the kitchen table after only _two _calls. Despite his genius, Shikamaru was notoriously lazy and every morning was a war of wills between two.

Well, at least it normally was.

Shikaku's eyebrows rose when he noticed his son's prompt arrival for breakfast. He said nothing however, and only nudged the food in Shikamaru's direction.

After putting away her apron, Yoshino sat down at the table as well. She raised her chopsticks to her mouth but kept her eyes on her son.

He ate quickly. Efficiently. Shikamaru had always been a rather thoughtful and picky eater. The Shikamaru sitting at her table today ate with an almost thoughtless drive to consume food. He even ate his vegetables, which he usually avoided as if it were the plague.

There was something horribly off about her son.

Yoshino opened her mouth to say something but a quick look from her husband made her decide otherwise. Hiding her uncertain expression behind a sip of tea, Yoshino watched as her son quickly and quietly demolished his breakfast. By the time Shikamaru rested his chopsticks on his bowl with a decisive click, Yoshino was able to muster a smile.

"Have fun at school!" she said cheerfully. "And goodness, don't irritate Ino more than necessary!"

Instead of the usual groans that greeted her words, Shikamaru was silent. He seemed to mull over her words with a strange intensity that made her shift uneasily in her seat.

"Alright." His tone was unusually soft and melancholy—but not subdued. It was a strange distinction that Yoshino made instinctively, a distinction that would disquiet her when she would later reflected upon this strange interaction.

He was out the door in a flash. Yoshino bit her lip fretfully. Her Shikamaru usually dragged his feet.

"Shikaku…" she exchanged a look with her silent husband.

Shikaku gave a gruff snort. "He's just having one of his days." Despite his casual tone there was a line of tension in his hands. Both could not forget the screams that had woken them up yesterday night, nor could they forget the look Shikamaru had gave them when they had approached.

As if they were strangers.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke squinted at the eggs sizzling in the frying pan. Judging them just about right, he turned off the stove and then carefully slid the eggs onto a waiting bowl of rice. Without even waiting for the food to cool, he dug in ravenously. Regardless of the nutrients and calcium numbers stated on those little plastic packets, ration bars tasted like shit.

Sunny mornings such as these always made the world seem a little bit less insane. As the sun and sound of rustling leaves wafted in through the open kitchen window, Sasuke found it much easier to accept the strange situation.

He had woken up on the ground with his throat raw and his back aching, again. He must have blacked out screaming. But black out or no black out, Sasuke had not forgotten those few moments of alternating clarity and insanity. He had managed to get drag himself into the house and into the shower without tripping more than twice in his unfamiliarly small body. By the time he found himself making breakfast, Sasuke had shaken off most of the anxiety. The fact he only stood chest-high to the kitchen counter was still a bit disconcerting though.

This was no genjutsu. It couldn't be a genjutsu.

Sasuke had to believe this was real. He'd survived too long to give up just yet.

"Bastard," he muttered into his bowl. This was an impossible situation, and there was only one person Sasuke knew who always seemed to do the impossible.

Trust Naruto to come up with something insane like this.

_Idiot._

But although Sasuke managed to make the small leap-of-faith, it didn't explain what he was doing here in the _past_. Or maybe he wasn't in the past? Was he, perhaps, in another alternate reality?

"Bah." Sasuke unceremoniously dumped the dishes into sink. He would wash them later. The calendar date glaring down at him from where it hung on the wall was more annoying.

Where was he exactly? What _time _was he in? The year suggested he was still in his first year of Genin training, but he didn't have his forehead protector. He must still be in the Academy.

Sasuke flipped through the calendar, looking for signs. Although his neat handwriting had circled and labeled laundry days, grocery days, and even grave-visiting days, it had written little else. Sasuke glimpsed a few references to Academy training events—so, he must still be in the Academy.

Today had been circled with bright red marker. It must _mean _something.

Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen counter. He was just about to slip into an absent-minded frustrated state when he jolted upwards.

Was he the only one like this? What about the Nara and Hyuuga?

_The Academy_.

Sasuke slipped on his sandals and bolted out the door. He managed to stumble three times, trip twice, and outright fall only once.

It was progress.

* * *

"I heard you'll be having your Genin test today."

Hinata did not trust her voice, so she quietly nodded. If memory served her right, it wasn't as if he would notice anyway.

"Remember to be respectful."

It took all her years as a Hyuuga to keep her face perfectly controlled. Hinata allowed her eyes to skittishly drop, but the line of her back remained comfortably straight. It was as if she were merely having breakfast—

—with the dead.

"Tou-sama, when will you train me?" Hanabi didn't exactly whine but her clipped voice had an indolent curl that was so uniquely Hanabi. Hearing it again made Hinata realize she had missed it more than she thought she did. It was a dull heartache that made it difficult to swallow, but Hinata persisted. The food tasted too good to let it go to waste.

What Hinata hadn't missed was the Neji sitting on her breakfast table. This Neji was a stoic, blatantly cold presence in the simply adorned room. It was almost cute in its immature childishness, if it weren't for the annoying sneers he kept shooting her way.

As Hinata carefully ate, her pupil-less twenty-year-old eyes slowly wandered from the floor to Neji's face and back again. She unconsciously frowned.

"Hinata?" Her father's voice was appropriately cool, just mildly inquisitive, with a touch of bored curiosity. Twenty-year-old Hinata couldn't help but feel herself cringe.

"Ah, nothing," Hinata murmured, hastily smoothing her face. "Please excuse me. I don't want to be late."

She practically ran out of the room.

When she'd slid the shoji door close, she heard Hanabi comment, "Nee-san's a bit strange today, isn't she?" Her father's voice was too low to hear clearly, and frankly Hinata wasn't even sure she _wanted_ to know.

"Hinata-sama," a maid said respectfully as Hinata ran past. Hinata remembered her. The girl would later marry one of Kiba's cousins and have two sons. Both sons would die before they reach Genin, and the mother would be one of the first to go insane from grief.

Hinata bit back a scream and focused on leaving this cursed house. Her twisted ankle still throbbed but it wasn't anything she hadn't dealt with before. Even with a good few hours of sleep and real food, she was still too tired to figure out what was going on. For now, getting to the Academy seemed like as good an idea as any.

Hinata soon realized her mistake.

The moment her sandals hit the main road she started to notice the difference. The walls all seemed strangely clean and whitewashed. Buildings rose where she was used to seeing rubble, and by the time she hit the main square, she was already beginning to feel the first signs of panic curl at the back of her head.

It must be market day. Hinata's eyes darted from stall to stall, blinded by the colorful displays of scarves and fruits that had gone so scarce during war. The sound of housewives bargaining viciously with laughing vendors, children begging for candy—it was the Konohagakure of her dreams all over again, the Konohagakure of her childhood, the peaceful pre-war Konohagakure.

But there had been a war. Hinata had _lived_ (died?) through it.

Hinata's senses exploded. It'd been too long since she'd smell so much _food_, heard so much _laughter_, seen so many _colors_—she shuddered. Too panicked to consider the consequences, she fused her feet with chakra and ran cat-like up a wall. Ignoring the delighted gasps of watching civilians, she bounded off the roof. Although she stumbled slightly, she managed to jump from roof to roof gracefully enough. In her effort to escape the innocent market scene, she failed to notice a pair of sharp red eyes following her.

* * *

_Fuck_.

Nothing, nothing had prepared him for this. This was worse than his parents. This must, must, _must_ be hell.

"Shikamaru! You're actually early!" Her blond hair gleamed like a ghost, and her smile was absolutely relaxed. Both of her blue eyes glittered at him.

Shikamaru could not control his face. He grimaced and roughly pushed past her, barely resisting the urge to shudder as he caught a hint of that telltale florist scent. He focused on the asphalt beneath his feet, the playground, the trees, anywhere but her face.

_Oh why the hell had he gone to the Academy?_

Ah yes, to run away from his 'parents'.

"Shikamaru get back here!" Her voice, high and so damn young, almost made him stop. But he was better trained than that. Even as he fumbled with this ungainly body, his mind urged him to get as far away from that demon as possible. He could fly apart later. Right now he had to escape first—

"Shikamaru!"

_getawaygetawaygetaway_

One step on the ground at a time. Left. Right. Left. Right—

This body was too slow. He felt a hand grab the back of his shirt. She'd always had a bad habit of doing that.

"Honestly Shikamaru, when did you get so rude—"

He was going to _kill_ this fake Ino. Fuck the enemy who thought they could mess with him like this. Numb hands snaked down his thighs and touched bitingly cold metal. His eyes blurred as his body whipped around, focusing on that white throat—

_Kill her_.

Her eyes were wide. Bright blue—not quite scared, more like stunned. He could see the glint of the kunai in her eyes. Shikamaru was relentless.

_Kill her_.

Shikamaru sensed the incoming threat, but once again his body was too slow to respond. Something ran into him, and Shikamaru hit the ground so forcefully he was surehe heard his hipbone crack.

The enemy pressed on him. Shikamaru tried to slice the kunai sideways, but the enemy was grabbing his wrist too tightly. Shikamaru rolled his shoulders and managed to elbow the enemy's sternum. The enemy hissed but didn't let up, and pressed his knee into Shikamaru's stomach. Shikamaru choked. His blurring vision was blocked by black hair, but his ears still distantly heard herscream.

"—Stop it!"

_killkillkillkill_

The enemy was a strong bugger, he'll give him that. But Shikamaru had been in an unforgiving mood since the genjutsu had begun, and his bottled aggression and insanity was finally finding a nice outlet. With an animalistic snarl, Shikamaru grabbed the enemy's hair and pulled. The enemy's grip on his wrist slackened long enough for Shikamaru to roll over, pushing the enemy underneath him. He let his fist crash gtrr;u into the enemy's face. The enemy bucked and struggled, but Shikamaru was stronger. He raised his hand to give the killing blow—

Uchiha Sasuke's black eyes were too chilling to belong to a twelve-year-old face.

Suddenly Shikamaru's back was on fire. Heat sizzled through his skin and he could feel his muscle tendons snapping. Shikamaru growled. His lungs burned. Something hot grabbed his shoulders. Shikamaru let himself be pulled off, if only to be released from that bloody pain. A swift kick to his side sent him sprawling, spitting blood.

There were too many voices, too many sounds. Shikamaru pushed back the din and scrambled onto his feet.

A girl with short-black hair and a tan jacket was kneeling against Sasuke. Sasuke didn't bother to wave off the girl and let her gingerly help him to his feet. He swayed slightly and leaned on her shoulder. As the girl turned toward Shikamaru, her smooth black hair fell back to reveal bulging white eyes.

Hyuuga Hinata's stare was steady and hard—a familiar war-hardened stare. Shikamaru warily stared back.

They ignored the milling students, the watching gasping crowd. Hinata could see a glimpse of bright pink on the corner of her left eye, but she was much more concerned with the half-crazed look in Shikamaru's eyes and Sasuke's unsteady breathing.

"Shikamaru!" "What is going on—" "Sasuke-kun!"

"Are you alright?" Hinata said softly. Sasuke made a sound that might have been an amused snort.

"What is going on here?" a voice cut through the uproar. In the sudden silence, Sasuke wearily turned to glance behind. Hinata's Byagukan made such movement unnecessary, but judging from the cringe that rippled through skin, Sasuke was sure she saw.

An alive Umino Iruka gaped.

"Damn," Hinata sighed.

This time, Sasuke definitely snorted.

* * *

_Review_.


	3. A Fatal Farce

Disclaimer: not mine

Dedicated To: my readers. I'm sorry for the wait.

* * *

**Whilst Time Turns**

**Chapter Three: A Fatal Farce**

* * *

"Where are you going?"

Despite the stereotype of her sex, Suzume was not a nosy person. If anything, she was the very model of discretion. But Suzume had a sinking feeling she knew why Mizuki was sweeping through the faculty office in a flurry of paperwork and pens, and she didn't like it one bit.

"To the Hokage's office, where else?" Mizuki snarled as he stabbed a health report with a messy signature. Iruka winced as the other teachers murmured. Rumors traveled fast enough in this tiny village, and in the insulated world of the Academy, the "incident" involving Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, and Uchiha Sasuke had the whole school as buzzed as if someone had snuck ANBU's latest experimental drug into the canteen.

"They haven't even been checked out of the hospital yet!" Suzume exclaimed.

"You want to explain to the Jounin Commander why the matter concerning his son wasn't brought to the very highest authority?" Mizuki snapped.

'And the liability papers you're signing absolves you of all responsibility, huh?' inner Suzume shrilled. Outer Suzume kept a pained, conciliatory smile on her face.

"They're just children, surely they deserve some time to rest-" Suzume protested, but was cut off by a gentle, firm hand on her shoulder.

"He's right. When injuries of this severity are involved, it's best to let the Hokage handle it quickly," Iruka said quietly.

"Now I'm off. Take over my class for me, will you?" Mizuki called before he flashed out the door.

"I don't think he'll give two shits if the children involved were civilian," Suzume spat out bitterly. "All that bastard ever cares about is his job and a possible promotion. And don't you try to distract me with cookies, Iruka. Just because I teach the kunoichi classes doesn't mean I can't disembowel you right here and now."

"I'll never dream of it," Iruka replied meekly.

* * *

"He's been in there for a while," Hinata murmured.

"Those were at least second-degree chakra burns, Hyuuga."

"I didn't _mean_ to. It's just—damn, I hate this body. I can't control anything—and don't give me that look. I know I'm complaining, but damn. Damn, damn, damn." The snarl looked a little bit strange on her childish twelve-year-old face, but even a bemused Sasuke couldn't fail to recognize the Inuzaka in the way she bared her fangs.

"Are you alright?" Hinata finally murmured.

"I'm fine," Sasuke replied shortly. Truly, he was. The bruises and black eye had been nothing, and with almost immediate medical attention, he felt remarkably fine. What was less fine was the annoying feeling of moving in a smaller, slower, weaker body. It was like moving through water, four hundred meters below sea level—or moving through one of Madara's genjutsus.

"Where are we?" Hinata asked softly, dragging Sasuke out of his thoughts.

"Hn?"

"Where are we, Sasuke?" Hinata repeated.

"I don't know."

"…it's not a genjutsu. Is it?"

"I don't think it is," Sasuke replied evenly.

"The Sharingan didn't see anything?" Hinata took his silence for assent. The tension in her body eased up somewhat, but to Sasuke's critical eyes, she still looked as if she were about to jump, fly at a wall, throw a kunai, struggle to survive at a moment's notice.

"…a second chance?" Hinata asked hesitantly. It sounded absurd but as the silence stretched on, the absurdity looked increasingly more comfortable than the strange peace echoing in the hallway. In their Konohagakure, the hospital was never quite so quiet for quite so long. Death didn't have off hours.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Why would Shikamaru-san try to kill Ino?"

"He probably broke," Sasuke answered simply. It was an acceptable enough answer. The Terror had broken many a shinobi, each cracking in ways more sickening than the last. Shikamaru was perhaps one of the more resilient ones, but even he had his breaking point.

"And you?"

"Do you see me killing anyone?"

"Not yet," Hinata whispered, the words just barely whistling past her lips. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Still don't trust me Hyuuga?"

"Sasuke—"

"Want to put another seal on me?" Sasuke said acidly, eyes flashing and lips curling. Hinata flinched.

"That's not what I meant—"

"Don't worry Hyuuga. I won't screw up this 'second chance'," Sasuke mocked.

"I won't let _anyone _screw this up, Sasuke," Hinata flared, Byagukan manifesting as her temper pinked her too-pale cheeks. Not for the first time, Sasuke couldn't help but stare in fascination at the veins bulging beside her eyes. "Not Shikamaru, not the Akatsuki, and especially not you—_no one_."

"Little princess thinks she can take on the likes of me?" Sasuke taunted with a sickly smile.

"I'm _not _giving up," Hinata hissed. Sasuke's smile dropped.

"Sometimes you should."

"Naruto never gave up on you, even after the second time," Hinata said abruptly, before she flinched, as if expecting a blow. That, even more than the bitter words and harsh tone, made a sick bitterness well up in Sasuke's throat. He was almost glad when the nurse suddenly emerged behind the door.

"Oh my—you two are still here? Don't worry; he'll be fine, although you did rough him up a bit. Be more careful next time when you're roughhousing. We won't always be here," the nurse clicked her tongue at him. She was probably a Chuunin, judging by her easy smile. The experienced ones didn't smile like that.

Hinata distractedly dipped her head out of respect, while Sasuke slid his hot gaze back to the wall. He could sense a rough, belligerent chakra signature moving their way, and wasn't too surprised to see Mizuki's outline in the distance.

"I'm sorry. That was over the line," Hinata murmured as the nurse vanished, avoiding his gaze. Although most of the fidgeting had died somewhere along the way with the rest of her family, she couldn't help but flex her fingers just slightly, just so. Sasuke noted the agitated movements, but pretended to be fixated on the cold blue paint of the far hospital wall.

"I'm not Naruto, princess," Sasuke said slowly, purposefully.

"Don't call me princess or I _will_ seal you," Hinata bit out just before Mizuki swept into a hearing range.

* * *

"Care to explain to me why, between the three of you, there would be a black eye, a smattering of bruises, and a second-degree chakra burn?

Hinata kept her gaze on Hokage's right mole. Sasuke kept his gaze on Shikamaru, who in turn, blatantly ignored their presence. The Hokage hefted the cold, clinical health report patiently. Four could play the game.

"We fell down," Sasuke finally said after an achingly long silence.

"I do imagine there was quite a bit of falling involved. Although that doesn't really explain the chakra burn," the Hokage pleasantly agreed before he took a puff on his pipe. He kept his old wrinkly eyes on Hinata, who admirably held his gaze.

"I apologize for my recklessness," Hinata said softly. Shikamaru yawned.

"Can we go now?" he muttered. Hinata closed her eyes as if she'd tasted something incredibly bitter.

"Not yet Shikamaru," the Hokage said sternly. "I still haven't heard a satisfying explanation yet."

Sasuke's frown was grim and serious. Sarutobi thoughtfully set his pipe aside. Sasuke'd always been a strange boy, but now he looked eerily like his older brother, not exactly a pleasant comparison to entertain.

"I was bullying Ino. Uchiha objected. Hyuuga-sama intervened. " Shikamaru finally said. He stared at the wall, purposefully ignoring the startled look Hinata shot at him at the strangely formal address.

"Is that so?" the Hokage said lazily.

"Yes," Shikamaru said dully.

"I see." Ah, youth. Always forgetting that they could be squished with a mere finger. "While normally I would overlook this incident as a simple matter between students, due to the injuries involved, I am sorely tempted to bar you three from participating in the Genin test today. It seems to me as if none of you have quite internalized the lessons your teachers have been teaching."

That certainly got their attention. Sarutobi had to give them credit, for their young age, none of them so much as twitched. But he was an old fox of his trade, and he did not miss the subtle surprise, perhaps even fear, that flashed in their eyes.

"It's one thing to settle differences, but it's quite another thing to fight without restraint or reason. We have enemies enough as it is. When we fight each other, Konohagakure dies. Without loyalty, we are nothing. If you cannot understand even this basic concept, you do not deserve to be shinobi."

Hinata fell on her knees. Sasuke flinched.

"Hokage-sama!" Hinata pleaded, with just the faintest hint of a stutter. "Please, if you must, punish only me. I was too forceful-m-my mistake has nothing to do with Shikamaru-san and Sasuke-san!"

The Hokage was an impregnable fortress. Hinata could hear the sound of her hoarse breathing scratch desperately against the stony silence of the room. It was humiliating, but it was absolutely necessary-

"Please get up Hinata. I think your father would have quite a few things to say to me if he realized you were kneeling unnecessarily," the Hokage finally said gently, purposefully softening his demand with a crinkly smile.

Hinata hesitantly stood.

"Since little Hinata has so forcefully plead your case, and as this was a first occurrence, I will let you all go with only a warning. Please consider how disruptive such fights are to public order the next time you settle… your personal differences," Sarutobi drawled, his old voice made velvet by the smoke curling from his lips. "And remember what I said."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Hinata murmured as she bowed respectfully. Sasuke gave what was a passable nod while Shikamaru—Shikamaru shrugged.

Their gumption was almost stupidly amazing.

"Off you go now," the Hokage said dismissively. Curious and fascinating as the three young brats were, by the time the door had swung shut, his attention was already absorbed with the latest report on Orochimaru's movements; yet another scourge on the world caused by Konohagakure's failure.

After all, it takes a village to raise or ruin a child.

* * *

"Sasuke-kun!" "Are you alright?"

"Poor Sasuke-kun—"

The noise was deafening. As the shrill voices grew into a hellish female roar, Iruka tried his best to maintain order, but there was no stopping the girls. A surge descended upon Sasuke—a surge sans Ino, who stayed uneasily in her seat. The boys, who had no love for the stuck-up Uchiha, hooted and jeered even as they eyed the quiet Hyuuga-girl. The Academy being the Academy, by now the second-degree chakra burn had evolved into legendary castration, and the other Academy boys weren't quite sure what to expect from the usually mild-mannered Hyuuga.

"Creepy girl—"

"Shut up. I think she's badass," Kiba growled. Shikamaru was his friend, and while he had no love for the Uchiha, he couldn't but think that the Hyuuga girl was quite cool for interfering in the fight like that.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Shikamaru cut through the incoming wave like a disloyal shadow. He avoided Ino's gaze as he flopped onto a seat beside Chouji, who wisely kept his own worried eyes on his chips. Hinata skittered to the last row with her back pressed against the wall, her eyes wide. This whole fan girl thing looked like a scene from a childhood nightmare—

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Oh fuck me," Sasuke almost said, before he realized those words might not be the ideal ones say. Why were they so endless? As he struggled to get away from the hands pulling at his shirt—dear gods, were they pulling his pants too?—he suddenly found himself face-to-face with pink; the kind of pink he'd last seen alive with a welcoming snarl on her face, and a ring of dead shinobi at her feet.

"Fuck off, Uzumaki," he hissed instinctively. With more urgency than before, he shoved past her towards a seat next to—Inuzuka Kiba, was it? Hinata, who had seen the whole exchange, lowered her eyes. For all her mixed feelings for Haruno Sakura, it felt wrong seeing such a young, innocent, pretty little thing be so humiliating rejected.

"Oi, teme!" Naruto's cackle soared, drawing the attention and wrath of every other Academy students. As the other boys and girls jeered, Shikamaru and Hinata stiffened in their seats. Sasuke outright cringed.

"Class, please calm down—" Iruka called hastily, his throat almost hoarse from pleading. Iruka finally gave a few hacking coughs, massaged his throat, and then took in a deep breath.

"We will have order!" Iruka shouted, bringing his fist down on the battered desk with a resolute slam.

The class immediately faced forward—the whole class that was, except for three who continued to stare at Naruto as if they'd seen a ghost. Iruka chalked it up to annoyance.

"The Genin Exam will now, _finally_, commence." Iruka kept his hand up to suppress the chatter that was just dying to erupt. "When I call your name, you will come to the front in an orderly fashion where Mizuki-sensei and I will test you. Are my instructions clear?"

"Hai!" Because if there was anything even more exciting than Uchiha Sasuke, it was the chance to become a shinobi: a defender, a protector, a hero, a _killer_. Iruka inwardly grimaced at the eagerness just shining in their innocent little faces. But that was how the system operated, and for all its flaws, Iruka was loyal citizen.

"We will begin."

* * *

"Would you mind demonstrating _Bunshin no Jutsu_?"

Sasuke did not like Mizuki. The man was stupid, arrogant, with a hint of maliciousness that made Sasuke itch. Cretins like Mizuki were a waste of space and air.

"Sasuke-kun?" Iruka prompted patiently. Sasuke swallowed his irritation and closed his eyes. His body was slow and ungainly in comparison to what he was used to having, and even his fingers felt thick and chunky as he formed the correct hand seals. Although his mind was remarkably clear, his chakra felt immature, rough, and foreign. Still, Sasuke being Sasuke, he managed to create an identical clone with seemingly insulting ease.

Somewhere far away, but with eyes that saw everything, Hinata blinked. She stared at her hands and then looked around. Focusing on a falling leaf, she began to form a chakra needle. Almost at once, she keeled over, her body rebelling as her mind instinctively sought to drudge up excessie chakra from a nonexistent twenty-year old body.

"Hinata-san!" Chouji said with alarm.

"I'm alright," she coughed. Shikamaru stared as the leaf fell onto the ground, completely unscathed and whole.

"As expected," Mizuki said pompously. Iruka looked slightly puzzled, but convinced. Sasuke knew that if any one of them had been Hyuuga, they would have seen right through his facade. He was lucky enough that his previous test scores had exempted him from taijutsu and accuracy tests. It was effort enough to walk without tripping on his too-tiny feet. In the condition he was now, he doubt he could even hit the target.

"Here is your forehead protector. You've earned it," Iruka said sternly, but not unkindly. "Welcome to the ranks."

Sasuke wordlessly grabbed the offered _hitaite_. Unlike the others, he seemed to reluctant to put it on immediately. But soon enough, metal gleamed from his forehead, and with the shallowest of bows, he exited.

"Cheeky brat," Mizuki muttered. Iruka shook his head.

"Be thankful Konahagakure have an Uchiha again."

"We don't need him," Mizuki argued.

"Shut up Mizuki," Iruka snapped. "Stop being an ass and help me finish testing." Although he was younger than Mizuki, he was the senior shinobi in attendance, and he was not afraid of pulling rank.

Mizuki bitterly kicked at his stack of paperwork. "You'll all be sorry," he muttered underneath his breath.

"Come again?"

"Nothing."

* * *

"Where do you think you're going, idiot?"

Shikamaru wasn't too surprised to see the Hyuuga and the Uchiha waiting for him. Although they were partially concealed in their high perch on a nearby tree, they had taken pains to be visible enough for someone who knew what to look for. Shikamaru had a sinking feeling they'll want to "discuss" things. All he really wanted to do was to fall asleep again and never wake up to this disgusting farce again. But for her to be here—

Yamanaka Ino had her hands on her hips as she stubbornly stood in the middle of the empty playground. Most of the students had already left, some flush with success, others resigned at yet another failure. Judging from the shiny new forehead protector strapped to her arm, Ino had been one of the successful ones.

"What do you want?" Shikamaru muttered as he tried not to stare. The baby fat on her face and the scar less skin on her exposed arms made Shikamaru feel like a pedophile for even noticing, even if this _thing_ was only a genjutsu. After all, hisNara Ino was dead, her ashes scattered over a flaming village and their unborn baby living only in prayers.

Fucking genjutsu.

"Meh, no need to be so rude. I'm just here to check on you. Today was exciting, wasn't it? I certainly wasn't expecting Sasuke-kun to react the way he did, but we were just fooling around, right, ne?" Ino chattered. Her blonde hair bounced as she rocked on her heels, a bad habit she'd acquired from some shojo manga or another.

_Why do you keep reading that trash, he had asked her. She'd laughed and then replied with the most heartbreaking smile: it's the only way I keep sane._

Shikamaru stiffly nodded. It was the only thing he could do with two stifling pairs of watchful eyes on him, and a clenching heart.

"Anyhoo, I see that you've got your forehead protector. I was almost worried, but then again, as lazy as you are, you've always managed to pass. I'm almost jealous—"

_Ino, he had plead. Ino, don't do this. She kept shaking her head. I want this baby, she'd argued. I want it, Shika, I want it. I want something more than just killing and death, and don't look at me like that, our baby will be beautiful, you'll see._

Shikamaru wanted to die.

* * *

"Shikamaru-san is becoming increasingly agitated," Hinata murmured. She was too far away to catch Ino's words, but her Byagukan easily picked out Shikamaru's erratic chakra signature.

Sasuke shrugged. The smooth, clean, virgin metal of his new forehead protector caught the light much too easily, and he hated it. He hated it almost as much as he hated the strange feeling of _wearing_ the damn thing. It'd been years after all.

"Sasuke."

"You deal with him if you're so worried," Sasuke said. Hinata's eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to argue, but then paused.

"It's the fan girls isn't it?"

Sasuke glared.

"Men," Hinata chuckled before leaping off the tree. She landed solidly enough, although she still moved as if her mind perceived a body eight years older. "I'm bringing him home," she called over her shoulder.

"He'd better not break anything," Sasuke muttered before he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

It was almost frightening easy to slip into their old pattern. It was almost as if nothing had happened.

But something had happened.

* * *

"Nara-san."

"Eh?" Ino blinked. Hyuuga Hinata was a notoriously shy girl who rarely participated in any social activities in or out of the Academy. For her to call out Shikamaru was quite—

"See you," Shikamaru muttered as he brushed past her. Ino could only gape as she watched her oldest friend stroll toward the shy Hyuuga Hinata with a scowl on his face. Geez, he didn't have to be so _rude_.

"You don't have to be such a bastard!" Ino shouted. "Men! And by the way, congratulations on passing the test, Hinata-san!"

"Congratulations to you too," Hinata said with a small smile as she unconsciously stroked the metal around her neck.

"Thanks. Don't hesitate to hit him if he acts up. Shikamaru's just been moody lately."

"I'll keep that in mind," Hinata promised. She waited until Ino vanished onto the main street before turning toward a silent Shikamaru. "Ino is beautiful," she said sincerely.

"Don't you dare call that _thing_ Ino," Shikamaru snarled.

Hinata's smile dropped. "We should go somewhere private."

"Right here is fine."

"I _really _think we should go somewhere private, Nara-san," Hinata stressed.

Shikamaru crossed his arms. "Where to then, Hyuuga-sama?" he asked icily.

Hinata smiled again, although this time it was the diplomatic, humorless smile she had used when she had negotiated the safe passage of all Konohagakure refugees to Sunagakure.

"The Uchiha Compound, where else?" she said, her forehead protector winking in the afternoon light.

* * *

Review! I would love to know if my hints and innuendos are being understood. This is my first time dabbling in this whole time-travel-slash-mystery thing, and I need feedback in order to create a better story. :) Thank you!


	4. The Butterfly Effect

Author's Notes: You review, I respond. Courtesy to avid reviewers, an avid authoress posts a second update within days.

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

Dedication: _hewhoistomriddle_. Excellent fanfic writer, although I understand she's disappeared from this corner of the internet. Check her out if you have the time.

* * *

**Whilst Time Turns**

**Chapter Four: The Butterfly Effect**

* * *

The Uchihas had lived lives swathed in concrete and brick.

While the Hyuuga Compound struck a dramatic silhouette in wood and paper screens, for the Uchiha, wood and paper burnt far too easily for their practical tastes. The Uchiha had ruthlessly valued utility above all else, and so they built their houses out of solid materials, like stone and cement. While the Hyuuga had scoffed at their ugly utilitarianism, the Uchiha Compound had kept its inhabitants warm in the winter and protected in summer wars. Even after all the blood had washed away, the Compound had continued to stand, waiting.

Shikamaru had been in this part of town only a handful of times. Most of those times had been toward the end of the war, when over half of Konahagakure had been reduced the rubble. Back then, the run down complex had served as a hasty solution to the injured and homeless. Shikamaru always had difficulty finding calm in such misery. Although the gray buildings were now empty of the pathetic and helpless, Shikamaru found it as unsettling as ever.

Hinata seemed completely unaffected by her surroundings. She weaved through the buildings with a quiet confidence, and Shikamaru could do little more than blindly follow. The buildings all looked too similar for him to pick out landmarks, and although he was sure he could learn to find his way, Shikamaru didn't particularly want to. This wasn't the kind of place he wanted to to be familiar with.

Unfortunately, something like instinct told him that whether he wanted to or not, he'll find himself in these halls often enough.

Eventually, Shikamaru began to hear the familiar sound of body hitting wood, and after one last turn, Shikamaru wasn't surprised to find himself standing in a training ground. It was the usual training area with all its usual accessories of dummies and targets, no more remarkable than any other training ground, except for the fact there was a certain Uchiha Sasuke standing at the center of it.

Hinata said something that might have been a greeting. Shikamaru wasn't paying attention. He was staring at the round face, the small body, and the short hair of the man-turned-boy who had brought the shinobi world to its knees, Shikamaru knew those black eyes. Those eyes could eat a world.

"_You_," Shikamaru hissed.

Sasuke's eyes glittered.

Later, Shikamaru would say it was instinctual. But whatever the reason, suddenly there was chakra and then there were shadows. As far as Nara Shikamaru, Jounin Commander of the great Konahagakure, all alliances had died with the last Hokage.

"No!" Hinata cried, but Shikamaru was already gone. Hinata watched helplessly as Shikamaru dashed away, his whole body leaning forward as he surged toward Sasuke. Hinata was tempted to follow, but the maniacal gleam in Sasuke's eye told the cynical woman in her child body to stand back.

Although he was tired and his chakra was still grumpy from the stupid, stupid Genin exam, Shikamaru twisted formed a familiar set of hand seals. Shikamaru's pink, fleshy little-boy hand became enveloped in shadow, and although Sasuke ducked, Shikamaru's hand sliced through cotton shirt and flesh. Sasuke's face was blank as a gash the size of his finger appeared on his right arm, and without a change of expression, he rolled to his feet and slammed his bloody right hand into Shikamaru's chin, forcing Shikamaru's neck to whiplash. Before Shikamaru could reorient himself, Sasuke stepped forwards and swiftly kneed Shikamaru's stomach.

Shikamaru doubled over with a muffled curse. Sasuke danced forward again, but was forced to back away when Shikamaru sliced the air with a gleaming sharp edge.

"Shouldn't we be obedient Academy students like the 'Hokage-sama' told us to be?" Shikamaru sneered. His chin dripped with blood, none of it his own. Sasuke, favoring his dripping right arm, growled.

"Get a hold of yourself, Nara," Sasuke said lowly, the back of his left hand just barely deflecting Shikamaru's sharp elbow in time. Too late, he saw Shikamaru's hands forming a yet another set of hand seals. Caught between Shikamaru's body and his own shadow, Sasuke was too slow, too ungainly, too young to dodge the second black claw that ripped into his back.

"Stop!" Hinata cried.

Blood splattered onto the ground. Except for a choked gasp, Sasuke refused to react to the pain. He moved forward and did a little jump, kneeing Shikamaru in the stomach yet again. Shikamaru was forced to step back. Sasuke took the chance to pivot away from the dangerous, flickering shadow. Now standing to Shikamaru's right, Sasuke's leg snapped up for a perfect round house kick. Unfortunately, Sasuke's mind still thought of distance in terms relative to a longer arm and longer leg, so when his foot slammed into Shikamaru's kidney, most of the contact came not from the front of arch of his feet but through his toes.

"Fuck off," Shikamaru hissed as he staggered back. Sasuke limped back as well.

"I would love to do that, but as you can see, we're all stuck here," Shikamaru retorted, unfazed by his broken toes.

"Stop this!" Hinata demanded. She didn't scream. Hyuuga Clan Heads didn't scream.

The boys, the men ignored her. Shikamaru's shadow again reached out to grab Sasuke, who barely sidestepped in time. But before Shikamaru could take the upper hand, the shadow vanished. Shikamaru visibly shuddered as chakra depletion hit him hard.

Hinata almost relaxed. For a moment it looked as if Sasuke would back off, but then she saw his hands begin to lock together. Her raged shout wasn't enough to cut his concentration. _Chidori_ was not meant for twelve year old bodies, especially twelve year old Academy students, but Sasuke did not care. He forced his slippery red fingers to flash and lock. Almost immediately, nausea washed over him as the jutsu took, demanding more chakra than he had.

Sasuke's twenty year old mind triumphed over his twelve year old body. _Chidori_ flared to life, and Sasuke raised his crackling hands.

Hinata darted. Within seven swift steps, her fingertips were at Sasuke's elbows and wrists. The lightning chakra fizzled and died. Sasuke slumped and then stiffened again as his body came under foreign control from yet another shadow jutsu.

"Shikamaru-san," Hinata pleaded. She moved to stand in between the two bloody, drained boys.

"Get out of the way, Hinata-san," Shikamaru snarled, revealing blood-coated teeth.

"Only if you stop this foolishness," Hinata snapped. Despite her harsh words, her eyes were worried as she scanned Shikamaru's body. All this excessive chakra usage was threatening to inflict permanent harm on his immature charka coil. Although he wasn't visibly bleeding like Sasuke, Shikamaru had sustained severe injuries as well. His organs were definitely bruised, if not slightly ruptured.

If Sasuke had been at full strength, they definitely would have burst.

"Tell your boy toy to shove off first."

Sasuke's eyes flashed. Hinata stiffened. Despite the sudden fury that clawed at her chest, Hinata was still fresh and calm enough to keep her anger cool.

Hinata grabbed Shikamaru's hand. Shikamaru, still preoccupied with maintaining the shadow jutsu, could do little more than jerk at her tight grip helplessly. Hinata slid her hand up to the crook of his arm. The slow, considering way her fingers pinched his elbow was a dark promise she could and would easily shatter his joints.

"Shikamaru-san," Hinata said softly.

Shikamaru reluctantly released the jutsu. Hinata immediately slammed her palms into his shoulders, forcing her chakra to overload his system and paralyze his arms. It was messy and unskilled, but in her ungainly body, Hinata didn't trust herself to accurately seal the tenketsu points around his fragile neck. Behind her, Sasuke keeled onto the ground, clutching at his arm as his vision spun from both chakra and blood loss.

Shikamaru swayed and cursed. Hinata didn't even blink.

"You called me Hyuuga-sama in the Hokage's office."

"So?"

Hinata stared at his tightening jaw. "You remember."

"Of course I remember. Just like I remember who's the traitor here," Shikamaru snapped as he glared bitterly at Sasuke.

"I thought we all agree to put that behind us," Hinata said.

"That was Naruto and Sakura's decision, not mine." He took a deep breath. "You have no jurisdiction over me, Hyuuga-sama."

Hinata looked impassively at the former Jonin Commander.

Shikamaru gave a hoarse, humor-less chuckle. "This fucking genjutsu-"

"It's not a genjutsu," Sasuke suddenly snapped. Although pain wracked down his back and side, his mind was made of harder, scarred stuff. He forced himself to focus as

"So?"

"It's not a genjutsu," Sasuke suddenly snapped. Although pain wracked down his back and side, his mind was made of harder, scarred stuff. He forced himself to focus as Shikamaru gave another ugly, horrible laugh.

"Not only a traitor, but an insane one at that," he said, his voice dripping with contempt. Sasuke shrugged.

"After all these years, you people couldn't come up with something better?" Sasuke said scathingly. Hinata bristled and turned her head just slightly so he could see her disapproving glare.

"He's right, Shikamaru-san," Hinata said, turning back to face Shikamaru. She ignored the glare Sasuke had leveled at the back of her head. It wasn't half as annoying as the look of pity in Shikamaru's eyes.

"Hyuuga-sama, of course this is a genjutsu," Shikamaru said, oddly, maniacally gentle.

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "I haven't found a genjutsu that could withstand the Byagukan."

"There's always a first. Besides, what else could it be?"

Hinata hesitated. "Well, that—"

"See? Surely you don't expect that all of this is real."

"There's more logical basis to that then calling it a genjutsu," Hinata pointed out.

"If I were in a better mood, I wouldn't mind discussing rational assumptions. However, I am not in that kind of mood so once again, Hyuuga-sama, if you would move aside—"

Hinata's slap echoed loudly in the clearing. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and turned his head to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"If you keep instigating these stupid fights, I will seal you."

"Save your domination fantasy for the likes of the Uchiha," Shikamaru sneered.

"You should thank me. I kept you from killing your wife, bastard," Sasuke muttered. Shikamaru's eyes flashed.

He lunged forward. Hinata, shorter and a little bit better adjusted to her body than the two boys, braced herself and then drove her shoulder into his body. Shikamaru faltered, giving enough time for Hinata to crouch and sweep his legs out from beneath him.

Hinata quickly placed her knee over Shikamaru's sternum. At the tiniest pressure she could knock the wind out of him. She laid her hands over his shoulders and closed all of his tenketsu, leaving his arms fully paralyzed

"Don't you dare talk about my wife. That thing was not Ino. Ino is dead and don't you dare think you can tell me otherwise," Shikamaru spat.

"Shikamaru-san, calm down," Hinata urged.

"I saw her die!"

His shout rang and echoed. Hinata winced and hoped no one would overhear. Sasuke said nothing.

"Ino was my friend too," Hinata whispered. The silence was heavy and painful. They'd done such a good job on holding it all together these past few years, but their minds were tired and being rubbed raw by this torturously familiar and yet unfamiliar world.

"Crazy as this may sound, I'm going to treat all of this as if it were real," Hinata finally said. "Which means—"

"What? You think this is some kind of re-do?"

"Yes." Behind her, Sasuke jumped. Hinata had hinted as much, but it was another thing to say it.

"You're insane," Shikamaru hissed. Hinata sighed gently but kept her gaze hard.

"Maybe," she agreed softly. "But that's the only thing I can do now. And so as I was saying, while you don't have to necessarily join me in this assumption, do know that if you keep distorting the natural process of events, you'll ruin everything."

"Even if this were real, nothing will change. It'll be the same thing, all over again," Shikamaru said tiredly.

"You're wrong," Hinata said viciously and dug her knee in rather forcefully. Shikamaru closed his eyes and looked away, revealing none of the pain that rippled across his chest.

"Hyuuga, that's enough." Sasuke laid a bloody hand on Hinata's shoulder.

Hinata let go. She stood and in a gesture that seemed rather at odds with the serious surroundings, brushed the front of her pants. "Never mind. We need to get you two the hospital." She tried to help Shikamaru up, but he slapped her hand away.

"Save it," Shikamaru snapped. He rose and then swayed on his feet. When he tried to take a step away, he collapsed on the ground again.

Sasuke darkly chuckled. "I don't think you're going anywhere."

"Hush," Hinata murmured. She turned to look clinically at Sasuke. "There's no way I can carry both of you to the hospital. We're going to have to call for help. Again."

* * *

"Now that Naruto's passed, we'll have to reassign the Genin cells," Iruka said happily. Despite his wounds—Mizuki, that traitorous bastard—he couldn't help but be cheered by Naruto's success. Naruto had always been the underdog and he deserved this break.

"Indeed," the Hokage murmured thoughtfully around his warm pipe. "By the way—what is this?"

Iruka glanced at the document and sighed. "That's another health report, Hokage-sama, regarding Uchiha Sasuke and Nara Shikamaru."

"Another one?"

"Apparently they continued their dispute after hours."

"Did Hyuuga Hinata happened to be involved as well?" inquired the Hokage.

"Unfortunately, yes," Iruka replied. He glanced at the Hokage and tried to gauge the man's reaction, but the Hokage was inscrutable in his old age and vast power.

"About those Genin cells…" The Hokage squinted at the flow chart for a long moment, before he swirled his inky brush in swift, neat penmanship. Iruka politely waited for the Hokage to lean back into his chair before leaning forward to look.

"Hokage-sama!" Iruka gasped.

"Yes, Iruka-san?" the Hokage asked amicably.

"Asuma's team—"

"Oh, I know their parents were very famous, but I think this takes precedence. Given the surnames of those involved, it would be very problematic if those brats continue to hold onto their petty rivalries."

"But assigning Hatake-san!" Iruka protested.

"It's about high time Kakashi started teaching. He's been avoiding it for far too many years already. And besides…there is no one better equipped for teaching Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hokage-sama—"

"I stand by my decision, Iruka. And if anyone has problems, just send them to me," Sarutobi chuckled. "I'll be more than happy to sit down for a little chat."

Iruka gulped.

"Don't worry, Iruka. I have a feeling that Naruto will do well with his team. Although, regarding Kakashi, I think you do have a valid point… he'll take a little bit more persuading. Call him in for me, would you?"

* * *

"Good morning. I brought you a change of clothes."

Sasuke groggily opened his eyes. It was the first time in ages since he'd managed to get a full night's rest. Despite feeling more refreshed than he'd felt in years, the clean white hospital sheets and the sun merrily pouring in through the window disoriented him. After all, it was the rainy season, and the war—

"Shikamaru's mother came to pick him up yesterday. Since you didn't exactly have a guardian, they figured they might as well let you spend the night. You slept like a log from what I hear." Sasuke turned to see a girl with round cheeks and even rounder white eyes sitting on a stool next to his bed. Although she looked different, the polite but dry tone was all Hyuuga Hinata. Sasuke almost felt like going back to sleep when his rather recent memory caught up with him.

"My back?"

"The medics healed it, although I can't say they're pleased to see you twice in one day. The blood loss was a slight problem. I think they left you some pills for that."

"I don't know how you do it," Sasuke muttered as he gingerly sat up. He felt slightly sore, but judging from the thin bandages, it must have been nothing serious.

"Do what?"

"Function. Normally."

Hinata's face darkened. "The clothes are on the table. I have to go. Knowing Shikamaru, he probably decided to skip out on the Genin assignations. See you at the Academy."

"Hn."

"And don't forget to wear your forehead protector. You are a loyal shinobi—for now at least."

"Is that a threat, Hyuuga?" Sasuke asked, his voice muffled as he pulled the clean shirt over his head.

The door wordlessly clicked closed.

* * *

The classroom was thrumming with expectation. While the scions from more established shinobi families tried their best to fake casual calm, the first-generation candidates were beside themselves. Stories, fears and hopes flew back and forth. The feeling that they were on the precipice of something great was an intoxicating thrill for the children. Even if they'd really known what was to come, they probably would have all foolishly, drunkenly persisted on walking down that self-destructive path.

"Oi, teme! Guess what? I'm a Genin too! Bow down before the future Hokage!"

It was so difficult meeting those honest blue eyes. Paired with a rather embarrassing memory*, Sasuke could find no reason not to stand up and simply walk away.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Naruto demanded from his perch on Sasuke's ex-table.

"Stop bothering Sasuke-kun!" "Seriously Naruto, don't squat on the table…"

Hinata laughed underneath her breath as she watched Sakura join the crowd in scolding Naruto. Older, wiser, and more jaded, Hinata couldn't help but find some dark humor in the situation.

'Funny how fate turned out,' she thought rather bitterly as she tiredly closed her eyes. She had stayed up late accompanying Shikamaru and Sasuke to the hospital, and then it'd been a headache and a half trying to explain her lateness to the Hyuuga Head. She still had difficulty stomaching the living existence of her father, but she was more than willing to shove that title on someone else's head.

"Nervous?"

Hinata opened her eyes. But even without her sight, she could have recognized that voice anywhere.

"Kiba-kun!" she exclaimed.

Kiba flushed. Although he had known Hyuuga Hinata since they were both toddlers, in his mind she was always a rather stuffy, boring girl. He was woefully unprepared for the warm, friendly smile that lit up her face and made her eyes shine. When did Hyuuga Hinata suddenly become this cute? And didn't she always address him as Inuzaka-san? Not that he was going to correct her.

"Hey," he said awkwardly. He scrambled for words, but luckily for the poor boy, before the silence could grow into one of those awkward moments, Iruka walked into the room.

"If I can have your attention!"

For once, the whole class descended into silence immediately. Iruka took one last glance at his beautiful, hopeful students before he looked down at the list. He'd memorized it over the course of one long stressful night, but he found comfort in staring at the ink. It made it easier to say goodbye.

"Team One!"

As Iruka rattled off the team assignations, Haruno Sakura twisted her handkerchief nervously. Her hands were clammy with sweat and she suddenly wondered whether or not her forehead protector looked tacky on her hair. She'd spent a whole night wondering how to wear it. Ino looked effortlessly cool and casual with her _hitaite_ wrapped around her waist.

"Team Seven. Uchiha Sasuke—" Like every other girl in the room, Sakura shot forward in her seat. She held her breath.

Please, please, please.

"Nara Shikamaru—"

She never wanted something so much.

"—and Hyuuga Hinata. Please wait for your instructor at Classroom 204."

Sakura slumped. Not only did Hyuuga Hinata have an bloodline worthy for the textbooks, she had Sasuke-kun on her team as well! Life wasn't fair.

Not too far from Sakura, Ino gaped. Never mind how unladylike it was—she had been told from childhood that she would be in the same team as Shikamaru and Chouji. Her father had even given her an earring** yesterday night to remind her of her promise. What on earth was going on?

"Team Eight. Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Haruno Sakura."

Sakura shuddered. Not only was she stuck with a boy that perpetually smelled of wet fur, she was also on the same team as the bug boy. As if things couldn't get any worse! Sakura was so busy feeling sorry for herself that she didn't hear the sound of a chair clattering to the floor. Perhaps if she had, she would have turned around and seen Hinata's face—maybe then she wouldn't have felt so jealous.

* * *

Review? Feedback is greatly appreciated. I really do devour your words. Writing, especially fanfic writing, is a reciprocal process.

*refers to the infamous kiss

**see narutopedia


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